Plainfield Marks 25 Years After The Tornado
(CBS) – Plainfield leaders and residents took a moment Friday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the tornado that reshaped the village and the surrounding area.
The tornado ripped the roof from the Crest Hill Lakes apartments, throwing some occupants into what was a corn field. There was death, destruction and – for one family CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez talked with -- panic as they tried to find a family member.
Barb Perignon remembers an eerie dark green sky and huge hail. She and her husband headed to the high school to pick up her son Kurt from football practice. They arrived to find something else.
"I said, 'Oh, my God, it's a tornado," she says.
They found their son had been injured. In the chaos, they didn't know which hospital he'd been sent to. It was a long night of uncertainty
"It's just like someone took the air out of everything you do," she recalls. "The neighbors said, 'We'll help you.'"
They did, bringing Kurt home the next day.
"Oh, we were relieved," Lee Perignon says.
They were the lucky ones. Their home and family left intact.
At the Crest Hill apartments, 10 people died, and 187 residences were destroyed.
